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Figuring out what to do with my life

Ever since I&#039;ve been a kid I&#039;ve always known I want to get a high level of education, but as it would seem fate didn&#039;t intent for this to happen - so the last few months I have been thinking about what I could do with my life to attain some control over my place in the universe.

I still haven&#039;t figured out what I&#039;m suppose to do with what I was given, and I doubt I ever really will.

This much is clear though, I&#039;ve decided much to my personal agony that I will never have kids, since Tourette&#039;s is genetic, I would, even if my offspring didn&#039;t get active Tourette&#039;s, pass the genes on to future generations of my family. I completely refuse to pass this thing on to my children, I will not inflict this on an innocent child, out of a selfish need to get a family.
In the same breath, I will probably not be allowed to adobt, since this requires me to be able to support the child, as I will most likely live off or rely heavily upon support myself, and the simple fact that such things as Tourette&#039;s count against me in the total score, the chances of my application to be rejected are fairly high.
So of the list of things I wanted from life, I guess we can strike family - I am left with no other choice... Stryder.. you have five.. share already.

As for working, I&#039;m none responsive to medication, so that means, that without the arrival of some wonder drug, I won&#039;t be working, at least not under standard terms of a 9-5 job, and thus far job testing doesn&#039;t show good results - it looks like early retirement for me.
So being beneficial to society gets chalked off the list as well.

No worries, I pretty much did all the crying I needed to over these realisations already, I know there&#039;s nothing more I can do to change them than to aknowledge their affect on my life.

So, no family, no education, no J O B... what&#039;s left to do, get highest ever postcount on Linuxjunior.... again?

Re:Figuring out what to do with my life

Lovey,

Some days, I wish I could share my kids! But other days, I would probably cry if my kids were out of my sight. &lt;shrug&gt;

I wish I could say something that would put your life into perspective and make the skies sunny, the temperature pleasant, and the people nice. Unfortunately, when it comes to that, I suck! All I know is that in a couple of years (less than 2, I hope), I will be able to make arrangements to meet up with you and hand you a cooler full of Ben &amp; Jerry&#039;s Ice Cream. You could meet my family, enjoy my kids for the weird little munchkins that they are, and we could dual post on ljr. All I know is that you have enriched my life. I hope that the enrichment is returned to you ten fold.

Re:Figuring out what to do with my life

Well, that helps explain your online persona.

I suggest writing, like books, poetry, plays, whatever interests you. You can become well educated on your own, researching whatever to give you ideas. If you have a bad day, you can do nothing, so it works out. Then you can write on whatever. You have an interesting background so I think you could be pretty successful at it. I don&#039;t think many people actually manage to do it as a career, but you already said you&#039;ll likely be using the support of others. It might give that warm fuzzy feeling of being a positive contributor to society.

Re:Figuring out what to do with my life

I have thought about writing a book, since I have a friend who&#039;s a journalist and currently out of a job it might even be a good time now, as I could probably get some help, I don&#039;t feel like releasing yet another selfpity book about suffering from some desease, they are uninteresting to most people - and even I find them annoying.

What especially annoys me is that once people get sick and start fighting for a cause, it&#039;s always whatever is wrong with them.. when in reality there are normally far bigger problems to take care of. TS in the grander scale isn&#039;t a big problem.

As part of my unemployed state I am required to either look for a job or educate myself, I was thinking about taking evening classes in something like philosophy.. maybe I could start offering public talks on FOSS via the local lug again, at least that would give me something to do.

Re:Figuring out what to do with my life

What holds you back from traditional higher education? Is it part of your condition, financial reasons, support? I think self-education would be the way to go. I think there have been many great persons who have been self educated. It might be harder, but it might also allow for a wider range of subjects.
I&#039;m sorry about your situation with kids. At some point in my life, I did not care for them, but now that I am with Keri, I think otherwise.
Have you thought/tried about doing work from home? I am not sure how is the work environment in Denmark, but my roomate works from home (Florida) when his company is located in Connecticut. Perhaps you can try going that route?
Volunteer work would also be another option; many places hire volunteers after they get to know them. Also, perhaps a job working on some FOSS company? That might allow you to work from home. I know is not as easy as it sounds, but it might be an idea to consider..

Re:Figuring out what to do with my life

work or studing isn&#039;t an option currently since I have strong ADD following my TS, meaning I burnout real easily - I can go to school Monday and be so tired and confused that I&#039;m only good to go again Friday... hard to explain really, but I&#039;m getting treatment for this, it is however not a magical transformation.. I can get by on a daily basis, if I&#039;m not to concentrate hard for long periods of time and there aren&#039;t a lot of inputs all the time.

Re:Figuring out what to do with my life

[quote author=Lovechild link=board=14;threadid=9437;start=0#msg85583 date=1088602752]
work or studing isn&#039;t an option currently since I have strong ADD following my TS, meaning I burnout real easily - I can go to school Monday and be so tired and confused that I&#039;m only good to go again Friday... hard to explain really, but I&#039;m getting treatment for this, it is however not a magical transformation.. I can get by on a daily basis, if I&#039;m not to concentrate hard for long periods of time and there aren&#039;t a lot of inputs all the time.
[/quote]
That sucks :/
Perhaps you could take some internet-offered courses? I think I have seen programs where you study at your own pace. I will see if I can dig it up. I don&#039;t know how reputable they are, however...

Re:Figuring out what to do with my life

with my self displine I would hate to see how those would turn out, besides I really enjoyed the project work I did in college - that&#039;s by far my favorite thing about studing, and that would be missing. No shouting matches about how to do a specific thing, also no late night pizza and beer sessions before turning in papers.

But sure part time, or at home education could be an option, the big problem is getting work after that... you can&#039;t really do work via the internet on parttime, on your own time.. especially not in the current economy.

I think I&#039;ll start spending a lot of my new found sparetime working on FOSS projects, I already started some translation work, but staying focused on something for prolonged periodes of time is really hard.

Re:Figuring out what to do with my life

Maybe something not as concentration-intensive then? I spent a year doing construction work before going to University, and since I&#039;ve been in school I&#039;ve worked 4 different office jobs. I have to say that I enjoyed construction much more than any of the office jobs so far. You get to be outside under a bright blue sky, the sun above you, getting exercies, working purely with your hands...no frustration or difficult problems involved, just you and whatever you feel like thinking about. It&#039;s a zen thing. Now granted there were some pretty shitty days where I was either knee-deep in mud that had the consistency of custard, or when it was 40 C outside and I was working in a dusty hole carrying pieces of plywood soaked in diesel-oil, but those are the kinds of things that build character, and really make you appreciate the good days.

So maybe you could look into lending a hand with a construction team or something like that. I know you&#039;ll probably say what most people say...&quot;oh I&#039;m not cut out for physical labour.&quot; But really, everyone&#039;s cut out for it...most people are just drastically out of shape. Your first 3 weeks will be hell on earth. You&#039;ll be exhausted in every sense of the word except the good ones. After a month an a half, you&#039;ll be able to tolerate it. A little longer than that once you get into shape and start to know what you&#039;re doing a little bit, autodrive kicks in and the work becomes quite pleasant.

Re:Figuring out what to do with my life

if i were you i&#039;d spend time working on open source projects... even if you can&#039;t work on it for a couple of hours a day, you could probably get at least one useful hour a day done... which would be more than perhaps 90% of the open source community who always talk about how great open source is because everyone contributes while in reality most people don&#039;t do shit.